Former Baylor DB met the girl of his dreams at spring practice

It was fun talking to Trooper Taylor on the telephone the other day. Taylor is the receivers coach for the Auburn Tigers, who may well play in the national title game this season.

But truth be known, Taylor bleeds Baylor green and gold.

The former Baylor defensive back told me that he met his wife when they were students at the university in Waco and that they married on the 50-yard line at Floyd Casey Stadium.

After that day at the stadium, Trooper and Evi Taylor have been married for 17 years. They have two children — a 14-year-old son, Blaise, and a 12-year-old daughter, Starr.

“You’re going to ask me how did I catch a track girl, as good a coach a Clyde Hart is?” Taylor said, joking. “I said, ‘She ran a circle. All I had to do was wait for her to come back.’ With Clyde, I knew she’d be back in less than 51 seconds.”

Originally from Cuero, Taylor said he met his wife in a most unusual way during spring football practice.

At the time, the Baylor women were running the stands in their own workout. Members of the Baylor football team stole a few glances.

“Everybody in the secondary was looking up there,” Taylor said. “The one time I looked up there, Pete Fredenberg, our defensive coordinator at the time, he saw me looking.

“Let’s just say he (reprimanded) me, and he made me run to the top of the stands — in football pads, right between all the track girls. That’s where it all started. It was special day to me. That’s where I wanted to make sure we tied the knot.”

Taylor said his wife and her friends enjoyed a good laugh when the football player came running up between them.

“Yeah, I was running in full pads and they were all laughing, making fun,” Taylor recalled. “I just made the comment, hey, you’re the reason I’m running.”

Taylor insisted that he was not the first Baylor defensive back to take a peak into the stands at the girls.

“I was the one that got caught,” he said. “Everybody else was looking, and the one time I looked, the guy catches me and he sends me up there.”

The punishment turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. Taylor said he started dating Evi, and eventually they married four years later, in May 1993.

They were married at the stadium.

Taylor says he has great memories of living in Waco.

“My wife and I, our first kiss was at the marina, over there underneath the tree,” he said. “It was a fun place. On the river, right there on the Brazos. A lot of special memories there.

“(Also) a lot of good memories of teammates. I still stay in touch with Santana Dotson and Robert Jones, all those guys that played together, James Francis.”

Taylor says the Bears from the late 1980s and early 1990s have talked quite a bit this past week in the wake of the victory over the Texas Longhorns in Austin.

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “You know, Facebook has made that a lot easier because we don’t really have time to be on the phone. We’re Facebooking back and forth, I mean, it’s all lit up.”